This invention relates to a toy including a music playing device therein and, more particularly, to a toy in which a detachable rotator selectively operates an electronic music scale generator, so that a predetermined music may be automatically played.
There are already known prior art toys in which a music is played by a music playing device such as a musical box, a glockenspiel or a pipe included therein while travelling or conducting a music playing action. One problem encountered with such prior art toys is that they cannot play plural musics. A music playing device such as a musical box or the like included in such conventional toys is constructed in such a manner that a musical scale generating device is operated by protrusions provided on the peripheral surface of a rotator to thereby automatically play a music, however, the rotator is not exchangeable. Additionally, in such conventional toys, a rotator is formed by fixing metal protrusions for operating a music playing device onto a metal drum or by winding a metal strip provided thereon with metal protrusions round a metal drum; therefore, even if the rotator is exchangeable, such conventional toys are not suitable for children, particularly, for infants because there is a fear that they are injured by the metal projections or edges of the rotator. To avoid such disadvantages, it has been often intended to form a removable rotator by molding plastic. However, it is very difficult to integrally form a rotator having a plurality of protrusions radiately provided on the peripheral surface thereof by molding, because of the construction being complicated; accordingly, it is obliged to employ a complicated method including steps of separately forming a drum and protrusions and then fixing the latter onto the former. Still another problem encounted with such prior art toys is that a mechanism for playing a music is complicated.
The present invention eliminates the above mentioned problems of the prior art toys.